President Donald Trump will scrap — for now — a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that drew rare bipartisan condemnation on Capitol Hill, a source familiar with the matter told NOTUS.
Trump had created the fund as part of a settlement with the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, but the backlash was swift and bipartisan. Critics questioned whether the fund could be used to compensate those convicted in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and the proposal drew pushback even from Republicans. Axios first reported the news that Trump planned to drop the idea.
A judge blocked the fund last week, and the Justice Department said Monday it would not challenge that ruling — a rare instance of the administration backing down.
“This Fund was open to anybody who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether they were Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise,” the DOJ posted on X on Monday. “The Department will abide by the Court’s ruling.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson raised issues with the fund directly with Trump in a White House meeting, a source told NOTUS. It was this conversation that effectively killed the fund, a separate source said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will push legislation to ban the fund, and ensure a similar fund could not be created by presidents in the future.
“If Trump and Republicans are truly abandoning this corrupt scheme, they should have zero problem banning it in law,” Schumer said in a post on X.
The decision to drop the fund may have come as a relief for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who is trying to push through Republicans’ funding package for immigration enforcement but was facing widespread opposition among his GOP ranks due, in large part, to the fund. He would not answer reporters’ questions on Monday about whether he believes Republicans would support a ban like the one Schumer was suggesting.
“I do think that the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Thune said.
Democracy Forward, an anti-Trump group that sued to block the fund, said it has no plans to drop its lawsuit until it’s clear the idea is dead.
“We have seen time and again the president have to abandon corrupt and unlawful schemes in the face of litigation and public pressure,” the group’s president and CEO, Skye Perryman, said in an emailed statement. “If these rumors are true, the administration abandoning its illegal slush fund would be a major victory for people in America. Until the administration fully abandons the scheme, it’s beyond dispute that it will not recur, and our clients’ harm is remedied, we will be in court challenging it.”
Trump had sued the IRS for $10 billion over the leak of his 2019 and 2020 tax returns by a former contractor. Last month, the president dropped the case and announced the $1.776 billion fund. The money would not go to Trump but could have paid out claims for Americans who say they were targeted for political prosecution.
The settlement also included broad immunity for Trump and his family from IRS audits.
This story has been updated to include a statement from Democracy Forward.
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